This day 23 years ago Chinese government sent the army to crack down on student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. And ever since, Chinese authorities have been censoring any mention of the event in public and on the internet

This day 23 years ago Chinese government sent the army to crack down on student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. And ever since, Chinese authorities have been censoring any mention of the event in public and on the internet.

Accordingly, there was no public gathering across mainland China, no candle-lit vigil, nothing to mark the bloodiest crackdown since the communist revolution.

But, the memory of Tiananmen is alive in Hong Kong, where thousands poured into Victoria Park, setting it aglow with candlelight during a vigil to remember the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people killed in the June 3-4, 1989 onslaught against pro-democracy activists in Beijing.
AP Photo/Kin Cheung

The anniversary is a “very symbolic event for the future of Hong Kong’s social development”, said 28-year-old social worker Cheston Cheung, one of scores of thousands of people who packed the commemoration ceremony.

“It represents the things that we believe in and we want to remind the Hong Kong people about this. The June 4 events are not dead. It is very much alive.”

The former British colony is the only place in China where the Tiananmen Square crackdown is openly remembered, and the number of people attending the annual vigil has swelled in recent years.– with files from Agence France Presse

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